Shareology participated in her first Huddle Friday morning. Let’s ask Neal Kielar of Agency Babylon to explain the concept:

“For me Huddle is an extension of the hyper-networking that social media has made possible. Because I’m more present on Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as through my blog <http://AgencyBabylon.com>, it is easier for like-minded people to discover me.”

“The upside of that is getting to meet so many smart people and be exposed to so many interesting ideas and ways of doing things. The downside is that you can only have so many coffee meetings in week or month or year.”

“Beyond that, when I do meet with someone new to network I invariably refer them to many other people. That’s where the idea for Huddle emerged. What if I could not only streamline my penchant for networking but also rapidly network other people together, people who I think this new person should meet.”

“That’s what Huddle does. It allows me to indulge in my desire to network while also honoring the time and needs of those who wish to network with me.”

“So Huddle meets once a month. It is by invitation only. And it’s usually triggered by someone reaching out to me to get together – although it might be because i want to meet someone. Once the initial guest is selected, I also invite folks that person might find interesting and useful to know. Some of these added guests are people I know well or would like to know better.”

“I’m hoping to do this on a designated day each month. Same time, same place. And I expect to get every bit as much out of this as I’m hoping to give others.”

Let’s see a few visuals:

Neal Kielar and Jools Brandt

Jools Brandt, Joel E. Carlson and Paul Godfried

Kim Opitz and Neal Kielar

Afterwards, Shareology asked Neal Kielar for his take on this new networking experience:

“I might not be bringing “sexy” back to anything, but the first Huddle shows that we can bring “social” back to social media-based networking.”

Shareology is proud to feature guest blogger Agency Babylon today; the subject? Are you maximizing your use of LinkedIn and Twitter as you meet with folks? Shareology smiled knowingly at a recent meeting when her coffee mate pulled out a copy of her LinkedIn profile. Smart, she thought!

Let’s learn more from Agency Babylon:

By Neal Kielar, Agency Babylon

“It goes without saying.”

I’ve eaten those words before. Now I’m about to do it again as I find instance after instance of otherwise bright people who don’t take the time to learn who they’re talking to and with whom they’re about to do business.

The fact is, just about all of your prospective customers and clients, partners and competitors, colleagues and other contacts have digital profiles these days. They are practically hiding in plain sight – but hiding only to the extent that you don’t use free and ubiquitous online tools to seek them out and learn more about them.

What mysterious tools are these? Ever hear of Bing! or Google? How about LinkedIn or Naymz or Plaxo? Twitter? Facebook anyone? While these are just the tip of the iceberg, they constitute a sound starting point for researching people with whom you do, will or want to have business relationships.

Business prospecting. In addition to researching the company itself (you do that, don’t you?), you can use LinkedIn to see the profiles of people with decision-making authority to whom you’ll likely be pitching. Don’t forget to seek them out on Twitter, as well. Knowing who they are, where they’ve been, what and how they think, and what style they seem to project will help you better prepare. You might even have one or more connections in common that can warm up your entrée to them.

Account management. Have a new client contact? You’re going to want to get off on the right foot. So you should know something about the new client team member, like how long they’ve been with the company, what their role(s) have been over time, or if new to the company where they came from. You want to know their areas and level of expertise so you can interact with them appropriately, e.g., patient and extra helpful if they’re a newbie and with a touch of extra deference (or caution) if they are senior. LinkedIn, Twitter and online searches are all in order here, ideally before the new relationship launches. One of your jobs is to build rapport, and knowing how to connect with your clients is key.

Account team member. So you’re a designer or writer or programmer, definitely on the account team but not the lead interface. Are you excused? No, because there are people on the client team with whom you’re likely to collaborate. It would help a designer to know the background of the design lead on the client side, and writers or strategists or other roles just the same. Because you understand your client counterparts better, there’s a fair chance of working more smoothly with them.

Agency colleague. So the new gal or guy is coming on board. And of course your boss or HR have sent out a detailed backgrounder on this interloper. Right. At least they tell you the person is about to join the team (although I worked at one place where, weirdly, they failed to do even that sometimes). When you find out who’s joining your cozy corner, get on the interwebs and learn more about them. You can use that information to fashion a warm welcome or maybe gird yourself for a would-be nemesis – all depending on the culture of your shop and your own attitude, but that’s up to you.

Postscript: If everything was obvious to everyone, no one would need the services of smart agencies and consultants or even much staff. Agency Babylon is always willing to “state the obvious” in its mission to help all of us shine just a little brighter.

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When I began Shareology a month ago (Happy Birthday, Shareology!) I struggled with the diversity of subject matter I wanted to cover. I’m interested in a LOT of stuff. The four years Shareology spent at a career counselor resulted in a number of topics of interest in today’s economy. How to reconcile that with marketing and retail point-of-purchase and shopper marketing and social media? I can’t possibly do a blog: folks like a tad of focus as they click. What to do?

Finally it dawned on me: career exploration boils down to networking: networking is now centered on social media: and social media is a set of tools for today’s marketing. Whadaya know? It does all connect! Shareology has a focus!

And the actual word Shareology? A gracious gift from Agency Babylon, (@AgencyBabylon, http://agencybabylon.wordpress.com/ ), leftover from a branding session this summer. The client went with another name for his digital out-of-home network, and Shareology was thus available for use.

Thanks to those readers who made Shareology’s first month so much fun; a special thank you to the tweeple who posted comments. It’s been a delight to read the intelligent, funny and thoroughly engaging words in your comments. Shareology readers Rock!!

To counter the very popular Networking Fatigue article that Shareology recently posted, herewith follows a tale of Networking Energy which illustrates several principles Shareology is fond of.

Shareology is often asked how she met AgencyBabylon. Once upon a Veterans Day, Shareology had a fun day planned. (As a State Worker Bee, she had this day off.) She was off to the Betty Crocker Kitchens for lunch. Well, OK, lunch in the General Mills cafeteria with a friend from Honeywell days. What to do before lunch?

Shareology decided to pop in to the warehouse district offices of a vp of marketing to whom she had written a fan letter. The vp of marketing was new to town, and had gotten a nice writeup in the Strib’s business section. The vp’s vision of marketing was quite similar to Shareology’s and she had written her very first business fan letter. Shareology arrived at the warehouse district office and asked for the vp, who turned out to be in London. Five open-ended questions later (perhaps there is someone else in marketing I might speak with?), AgencyBabylon was called, presumably to get the crazy lady out of the lobby. Shareology and AgencyBabylon sat down in a conference room, started a conversation over her resume, and two hours later…..Well, Shareology and AgencyBabylon have been sharing ideas and support ever since.

Writing a fan letter? So outside the nine dots. Cold calling in person on someone who is in London? Waste of time….unless…you ask a number of open-ended questions….and Don’t get Kicked out of the Lobby. Just saying……

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Shareology stole “Thank Blog It’s Friday” from AgencyBabylon; however, it will be the one and only time Shareology uses TBIF, the AB feature that debuted just a few months ago. Perhaps she will be forgiven this one time, given this post is actually one big Thank You to Agency Babylon.

Shareology has quite a few cheerleader tendencies, and yes, she does own a set of pompoms, thank you very much. A few months ago, she was more than happy to use those cheerleader skills as AgencyBabylon went through its conception, creation and launch phases. She stood in awe as AgencyBabylon grew, posted, and grew some more. AgencyBabylon set the standard for superbly well-written, graphically refreshing blogs.

Thus as it became obvious that Shareology was in launch phase, the high standards set by AgencyBabylon loomed high in the sky indeed. But, as in much of life, AgencyBabylon suggested Shareology Just Do It. And off we went on July 26th, 2009; Shareology was launched.

AgencyBabylon helped support and guide Shareology in innumerable ways this week. Turns out writing the blog is only the first step; promoting the blog so somebody out in the blogoverse actually reads it is quite another. As AgencyBabylon shared wisdom on all things blog, Shareology took her first steps.

So a big, huge, heartfelt “Thank You” and a shake of the pompoms to Agency Babylon for wisdom, knowledge and uncommon support this week and in the past five years!

Take a trip over to AgencyBabylon and enjoy this well written, entertaining and oh so intelligent blog or follow him on Twitter at @AgencyBabylon: